At the start of 1914, General Hirschauer was in command of a brigade of balloons comprising the 5th and 8th Combat Engineer Regiments of Versailles. On 8 February he was appointed Chief of Staff of Paris dealing with engineering of the area southwest of Paris and worked under the command of General Gallieni.
But at the outbreak of the war, Hirschauer requested to be sent to the front. He became commander of the 29th Infantry Brigade, and then the 63rd Infantry Division. Promoted to Major-General, he was put in charge of the 18th Army Corps and later the 9th Army Corps. He took part in the battle of the Ourcq, the 2nd battle of Champagne & the battle of Verdun. He took Craonne in 1917. He did a triumphal entry into Mulhouse the 17 November 1918. He ended the war as commander of the Second Army.
After the armistice, he was named governor of Strasbourg and retired from service in 1919. He won the senate election in Moselle the 11 January 1920. He was reelected in 1924 and 1932.
Publications
Auguste-Édouard Hirschauer, Paris en état de défense 1914
Auguste-Édouard Hirschauer, Les armées aériennes 1927
References
^La Moselle Et Ses Soldats: Dictionnaire Biographique Des Gloires ... Pierre Brasme - 1999 -- Page 105 "Hirschauer Auguste-Édouard Général de division du génie - Né le 16 juin 1857 à Saint-Avold, où son père Charles-Edouard est commissaire de police, Auguste Hirschauer entre à Polytechnique en 1876 puis suit les cours de l'Ecole ..."
^Robert Bowman Bruce A Fraternity of Arms: America and France in the Great War -2003 Page 19 "During the course of the meeting, the French politicians and the squadron's American advocates managed to convince the head of the Service Aeronau- tique, General Auguste Hirschauer, of the merits of the plan. At the conclusion of the .."